Friday, August 31, 2007

New Designs Coming Soon

New designs are coming soon to Sea Squirrel Productions! On Monday September 3rd -Yep Labor day, our newest designs will be available as well as our 2008 calendars! Stay tuned for more information.....

Been a Long Time!

I am sorry that it has been a long time since I have posted! I have had considerable computer problems. First my home office computer was not working properly after a storm. I ended up having to reformat and reinstall everything, then something happened when installing and had to repeat the process a week later as things still would not work. Now it is working fine. Then my personal computer got a nasty virus when I had not updated the antivirus subscription for about a month...then I had to uninstall the antivirus software as I was upgrading to a different maker, wham bamm, thank you Mame, the virus was all over the place...really screwed up the operating system. A wipe of the hard drive and a reinstall later, Vista is working better than before!

This past Wednesday night dive- I was unable to dive the last "Wednesday Night Dive" that our dive shop- SASS -sponsors. I was bummed, but a mild cold will do that to ya! I still went to enjoy my friends and have some hot dogs!

Friday, August 17, 2007

Special Sale-ending

Just wanted to remind folks that the special blog/newsletter sale is ending today!

Monday, August 13, 2007

New Design At Sea Squirrel

I have finally uploaded the new design!
Ever hear of a Scuba Diving Dino? Now you can get your own dinosaur in scuba gear on a dive!
We even have a special sale for our newsletter subscribers and readers of this blog...check it out. The sale is only good until Friday the 17th, 2007. Act quickly!

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Today's Dives and More

Today we did a trip on Lake Michigan to dive in the Southwest Michigan Underwater Preserve by the City of South Haven. This was my first "Great Lakes" trip, as I have dove mostly inland lakes. We dove 2 wrecks- the Rockaway and the Verano.
-Rockaway- 107' schooner that was lost on Nov 19th 1891. The wreck is pretty broken up but it was a great dive...water temp at depth was about 57degrees F. The vis was about 50'. It was a fun dive!
-Verano- 92' yacht, lost in 1946. The wreck is very broken up with pieces scattered about. The water temp was comfortable, but the Vis really droped down to 20', as the current was pretty strong there, which made it difficult to see the scattered pieces.

I can't wait until my dive trip in Sept to the Manitou Passage Preserve.


UPDATE- After reinstalling my computer this weekend I had to delay the new design. A new design will be launched on Monday....stay tuned. Check it out at www.seasquirrelproductions.net

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Take The Oceana/Duke Dive Survey

You know how much your house is worth, your savings and investments … but how much is a healthy ocean worth?

Oceana wants to know how divers value ocean resources, so we’re asking you to fill out a short online survey. It only takes about 10 minutes, and it’s completely voluntary and confidential. At the end of the survey, participants will have the opportunity to enter a raffle for a free “Save Sea Turtles” T-shirt. The survey will not only support our work protecting the oceans, it’s also for the master’s thesis of one of our interns and a much-needed contribution to academic research in environmental economics.

Take the survey and tell us what the ocean is worth to you.

http://takeaction.oceana.org/images/centerimage_divequiz.jpg

Take the Survey! I did!


Dives and New Stuff

Yesterday was another Wednesday Night dive for the group I dive with...boy did I have fun...and it was also trying!
We were doing a treasure hunt in Gull Lake at Ross Township. Ian and I won the treasure ( that was the fun part!)

The thing that was so trying is that, Ian and I got separated in the great soup that Gull lake can become, while getting tangled in our dive flag line at the surface! Ian was about an arms length to my right, I was leading the dive. I saw the motorcycle on my left and started to head toward it (thinking they may have planted the treasure near by) while Ian saw and orange object that could have been the lift bag to his right and tried to get my attention but I was already out of sight. He found the treasure that inflated the lift bag and headed to the surface. I circled the motorcycle and then saw the phone booth and looked quickly by it and then noticed that Ian was not around...I headed back to the spot where I last saw Ian, did not see him so I started to surface...since I could always find him (he has the dive flag). Ian was on the surface with the treasure, the lift bag partly inflated and he seemed to be struggling, then I noticed that he had the line for the flag all wrapped around him self and the treasure. I took the treasure from him we fully inflated the lift bag, so he could untangle him self, which he did but the line became in tangled in my 1st stage and then my fins. Ian took the treasure from me and I started to untangle my self while Ian swam away from me so he would not get tangled again.

Now I know we could have cut the line (yes we had our dive knives) but I never felt like we were in any danger but it was tiring trying to untangle the line as it tangled in something else (we had about 50 feet of line out). Not to mention that it was HOT and MUGGY out, being in the water with our 7mil wetsuit we were still sweating...all in all it was still a good dive (how could it not be when you got treasure).

BTW
I will be uploading some new designs at Sea Squirrel Productions. www.seasquirrelproductions.net

Friday, August 3, 2007

Action Alert- Tell Congress to Protect Our Sharks

The threat of shark extinction in a number of species is very real, and its consequences could be potentially disastrous to the world’s oceans.
Ask your senators and member of congress to protect sharks!
Take Action



Sharks have survived for hundreds of millions of years, but now they have finally met their match: humans. Popular media have portrayed sharks as vicious predators, but we are the much greater threat to sharks. Humans kill over 100 million sharks each year. In contrast, sharks kill an average of five people per year, throughout the entire world. This means that people are statistically more likely to be killed by a falling coconut than they are by a shark bite. Shark populations all over the world are in trouble and the consequences could be disastrous for the world's oceans.
>> TAKE ACTION: Ask your senators and member of congress to protect sharks!

Fishing activity has nearly eliminated sharks worldwide, depleting their populations by 90 percent in only the last 50 to 100 years. Destructive fishing practices pose a danger to sharks so great that many may soon become functionally extinct, possibly changing the entire marine ecosystem as we know it.Sharks are at the top of the ocean food chain and maintain order in the underwater realm by helping to control populations of other marine species. Remove sharks from the equation, though, and what's left is an entire ecosystem out of whack.Most sharks are slow growing, late maturing, long lived and give birth to few young, so they are extremely vulnerable to overexploitation from fishing.Take action today by asking your senators and member of congress to help protect sharks. In addition, please send a letter to your local newspaper expressing your concern about the rapid depletion of sharks from our oceans. Without a voice of their own, if we don’t speak up for sharks, who will?

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Wed Night Dive

Yesterday was another wednesday night dive and was it fun! We played capture the flag at Eagle Lake in the Fort Custer Rec Area. The lake is pretty weedy and the vis is pretty bad.

For those that care...yes we did lose the overall rounds..3 rounds played. I had a tough time...the compass on the Smartcom sucks! It easly sticks and you think your going in the right direction only to find out that the card stuck because you did not hold it at the very specific angle and your way off course! I think I am going to have to get a different compass!